Drying the Harvest

I have trays, tables and boxes of things drying all over the house!  Some days I think I either need a bigger house, or at least a large room with tables and shelves all around just for drying produce!  Or maybe a big outdoor drying shed?  Right now I have tables full of popcorn ears, trays of beans, boxes of onions, and cloths full of herbs in various stages of drying.  Besides canning and freezing, much of our produce is preserved by drying.   The herbs are easy to dry - the method is as follows:
Briefly rinse the dirt off of the cut herbs and lay them out on a clean cloth until they are not wet anymore.  Then lay small amounts between paper towels and microwave them for a minute at a time until they are crisp and can be crumbled, changing the towels as needed.  It usually takes from 4 to 7 minutes per batch to dry, running the microwave only one minute at a time.  When the herbs are dry, crumble onto a piece of wax paper and funnel the dry pieces into a glass jar.  This way the herbs will stay good and usable for about a year or so.  I have tried larger batches in the dehydrator, but it takes almost overnight to dry them.  I have tried just hanging them and air drying them, but they lose color and look horrible.  I have tried drying in a 200 degree oven for a while, but that seems like a waste of electricity to heat up a big oven just to dry herbs.  A friend told me about drying in the microwave many years ago, and I have found that this really works the best, preserves the color,  and is quick, too.

A cloth towel full of oregano ready to dry in the microwave in small batches. 

We are starting to harvest our crop of popcorn now.  And wow - will we ever have a lot this year!!  For the past couple days I have spent 2 hours each day harvesting many tubs full of ears.  Harold and I remove the husks and lay the ears out on tables all over the house to dry.  I tried hanging some in bunches in our warm basement, but that was too much work to tie them all together in bunches and climb on a ladder to hang them from the rafters.  When the ears are dry, we will borrow our neighbors corn sheller and fill up another big wash tub full of popcorn.   Last year we got 100 lbs of popcorn, and we expect at least that much this year and probably more.   We sold, gave away and ate most of last year's popcorn, with only about a cup of kernels left.

One of many tables full of beautiful popcorn ears drying!  Some of the ears are almost 10 inches long.

We also have trays of beans drying.  Every year I grow a few different varieties of beans.  This year I grew Lina Cisco's Birds Egg beans, Jacob's Cattle beans, and Tiger's Eye beans.  The different varieties all have varying flavors and textures.   Some are good for soup, some for chili, and some make good refried beans.  Some are just good for eating as is, or in bean and rice dishes.   I usually have beans from previous years left over, so I have a good variety of beans to choose from when making recipes.   We love bean dishes - they are filling, inexpensive and good for you.

The beans on the left are Birds Egg beans, and on the right is Tiger's Eye beans.  The Birds Egg heirloom beans are good for refried bean dishes, and the Tiger's Eye beans are a South American heirloom bean good for chili dishes.  I always plant heirloom seeds and save some to plant another year.   I never plant anything GMO, and try not to plant hybrids either.  We are very much into seed saving, and you can only save seeds from non hybrids and heirloom varieties.

A big tray of Jacob's Cattle beans.   This is a very old heirloom bean and is especially wonderful for rice and bean dishes or with pasta, as it holds up well in casseroles and saucy dishes.